ethclient: Add EstimateGasAtBlock[Hash] to estimate against a specific block (ethereum#27508)

The main use case I see of this is that it allows users to estimate gas
against the same state that they query for their nonce, and the same
state they base the data of their transaction against. This helps ensure
that gas estimation won't fail and the transaction won't revert on-chain
because of a mismatch between the state used for gas estimation and the
state used to generate the inputs to gas estimation or the transaction's
nonce when submitted to the mempool.

This PR also updates the EstimateGas comment based on the new geth
`eth_estimateGas` default of using latest state as of v1.12.0:
ethereum#24363

---------

Co-authored-by: Felix Lange <[email protected]>

Author: 2 people

ethclient/ethclient.go

@@ -717,9 +717,13 @@ func (ec *Client) FeeHistory(ctx context.Context, blockCount uint64, lastBlock *
 }
 
 // EstimateGas tries to estimate the gas needed to execute a specific transaction based on
-// the current pending state of the backend blockchain. There is no guarantee that this is
-// the true gas limit requirement as other transactions may be added or removed by miners,
-// but it should provide a basis for setting a reasonable default.
+// the current state of the backend blockchain. There is no guarantee that this is the
+// true gas limit requirement as other transactions may be added or removed by miners, but
+// it should provide a basis for setting a reasonable default.
+//
+// Note that the state used by this method is implementation-defined by the remote RPC
+// server, but it's reasonable to assume that it will either be the pending or latest
+// state.
 func (ec *Client) EstimateGas(ctx context.Context, msg ethereum.CallMsg) (uint64, error) {
 	var hex hexutil.Uint64
 	err := ec.c.CallContext(ctx, &hex, "eth_estimateGas", toCallArg(msg))
@@ -729,6 +733,28 @@ func (ec *Client) EstimateGas(ctx context.Context, msg ethereum.CallMsg) (uint64
 	return uint64(hex), nil
 }
 
+// EstimateGasAtBlock is almost the same as EstimateGas except that it selects the block height
+// instead of using the remote RPC's default state for gas estimation.
+func (ec *Client) EstimateGasAtBlock(ctx context.Context, msg ethereum.CallMsg, blockNumber *big.Int) (uint64, error) {
+	var hex hexutil.Uint64
+	err := ec.c.CallContext(ctx, &hex, "eth_estimateGas", toCallArg(msg), toBlockNumArg(blockNumber))
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+	return uint64(hex), nil
+}
+
+// EstimateGasAtBlockHash is almost the same as EstimateGas except that it selects the block
+// hash instead of using the remote RPC's default state for gas estimation.
+func (ec *Client) EstimateGasAtBlockHash(ctx context.Context, msg ethereum.CallMsg, blockHash common.Hash) (uint64, error) {
+	var hex hexutil.Uint64
+	err := ec.c.CallContext(ctx, &hex, "eth_estimateGas", toCallArg(msg), rpc.BlockNumberOrHashWithHash(blockHash, false))
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+	return uint64(hex), nil
+}
+
 // SendTransaction injects a signed transaction into the pending pool for execution.
 //
 // If the transaction was a contract creation use the TransactionReceipt method to get the

ethclient/ethclient_test.go

@@ -625,6 +625,33 @@ func testSendTransactionConditional(t *testing.T, client *rpc.Client) {
 	if err := sendTransactionConditional(ec); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("error: %v", err)
 	}
+	// Use HeaderByNumber to get a header for EstimateGasAtBlock and EstimateGasAtBlockHash
+	latestHeader, err := ec.HeaderByNumber(context.Background(), nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	// EstimateGasAtBlock
+	msg := ethereum.CallMsg{
+		From:  testAddr,
+		To:    &common.Address{},
+		Gas:   21000,
+		Value: big.NewInt(1),
+	}
+	gas, err := ec.EstimateGasAtBlock(context.Background(), msg, latestHeader.Number)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if gas != 21000 {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected gas limit: %v", gas)
+	}
+	// EstimateGasAtBlockHash
+	gas, err = ec.EstimateGasAtBlockHash(context.Background(), msg, latestHeader.Hash())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if gas != 21000 {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected gas limit: %v", gas)
+	}
 }
 
 func sendTransactionConditional(ec *ethclient.Client) error {